The Crusade Wars: Into the Darkness
by Darth Sion
Summary: Nergal always haunted by his clouded past seeks answers, and finds something that he never would expect to happen. This is my first fanfic ever and also my first major attempt at writing. Please R&R. I do not own Runescape. Chapter 3 is up!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Nergal stood amongst four greater demons, the young warrior standing perfectly still not a look of uneasiness or fear in his eye. The greater demons approached slowly, there large red bodies bulky of muscle Nergal's opponents stood at least eight and a half feet tall with a wingspan of 6 feet. The four demons approached even closer slowly stepping inch by inch, they were unsure why the small human wasn't running away in fear.

Nergal drew his sword from its tanned sheathe, The blade was not much of a weapon, it was indeed sharp but the bulk steel weapon was a very poor example of craftsmanship. The demons were within five feet of Nergal, but still he stood at perfect ease, he raised his weapon and with great agility sliced through the first demons thick hide, blood spilled to the dirt of the wilderness floor. The other three demons enraged by the fall of there comrade began a barrage of attacks there huge claws splinting through trees, Nergal dodging the barrage of attacks sliced another two demons into halves, The fourth demon stood still fear in its dark eyes slowly took five steps back towards the river of lava. Nergal put his sword back into its leather tanned sheathe and dashed directly behind the demon, Nergal's speed was unmatched before the demon could turn around, Nergal thrust the blade in the neck of the demon. Once again the young warrior put the blade back in its sheathe, then walked off into the distance toward Varrock.

It had been a long walk to Varrock it had taken Nergal three days alone to get to the outskirts of the great city. Nergal walked directly towards the Blue Moon Inn in the southern part of Varrock when he got to the city. When he got inside he walked directly towards the barkeep, the atmosphere of the building was pleasant dimly lit but not enough to strain the eyes and large kegs where lined upon the wall behind the bar. " What can I do for you stranger", Nergal replied "Just looking for a room, how much for a night?" The barkeep shrugged " Let me check the if we have one available…" He took out a log from under the bar and read it " Stranger your in luck we have one room it costs 25 gold pieces a night" Nergal paid the barkeep and went up stairs to the room, it was a nice small room but good enough, all he wanted now was some rest.

Nergal awoke to a loud crowd of drunken thugs downstairs, it must have been at least midnight. Nergal ascended the stairs and seen the large crown of thugs. Nergal walked towards the bar and told the barkeep " I'll have an Asgarnian ale please" The barkeep replied "You like the imported ale huh? It will be 5 gold pieces please" Nergal paid the man and gulped down the beer extremely quick. Three thugs from a corner table approached Nergal and sat down next to him "Let me buy you another one" Nergal accepted the beer from the strangers and gulped it down "Barkeep get me an uncle Humphrey's Gutrot" Said Nergal "So your doing the bar crawl there stranger it will be 50 gold pieces" The overweight bearded barkeep said stroking his brown beard "No I just want the damn thing" The barkeep thought in his mind that Nergal clearly had a disturbing past, anyone who wanted to drink the uncle Humphrey's Gutrot for no reason was indeed crazy. The barkeep handed him the ale and Nergal exchanged the gold, Nergal drank the ale as quickly as possible and fainted.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

We're am I? Nergal's eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness. "Hello traveller" Said a an Al Kharid voice, I am "Kashif of Al Kharid, and who might you be stranger". "I'm Nergal, now leave me" "Don't you want to know how you got out here Nergal". Nergal attempted to draw his sword but realized it wasn't there when his hand met the empty sheathe "What did you do where's my sword and other effects?" "You were robbed and a carriage came out here and dumped you in the middle of the desert, we are currently by Bedadin camp. I'm a slave here and you will be soon if you don't leave… here take these waterskins and follow the ocean north then you will find a cave if you enter you are sure to perish amongst the sand" Kashif handed over the waterskins.

Nergal walked north his lips cracking from the dryness of the desert all he had seen for miles were camels and driven sand and the occasional palm tree or cactus. Nergal had thought to himself that he must have been on a footpath because of the driven sand. Nergal felt an extreme pickup of the dry desert wind on the Nergal looked on the sunset and seen a wall of dust and sand. Nergal ran as fast as he good looking for any cover at all but failed to see any of either side of him, he looked to the north and adjusted his eyes "There" Nergal shouted running towards a cave. Nergal darted inside the dark cave, He walked down a long tunnel passing burrows he walked for ten minutes then came across a group of beetle like creatures they all lunged at him but there attacks were futile, Nergal unarmed raised his fist and swung at one of the green six legged creatures head its skull caved in with a loud cracking sound, gore poured from its head he through his fists at the other three beetles and he relentlessly crushed there skulls with a single punch.

Nergal wiped his blood and gore covered hand onto his shirt and starting going deeper into the cave. Nergal walked for another ten minutes or so and came across a corpse, the corpse had been wearing some rare and powerful armor known as rune and also a red long sword was laying next to the twisted deformed corpse. Nergal had recognised this weapon as a dragon longsword a very expensive weapon few could afford and very few of these weapons were known to the land of Runescape. Nergal had stripped the corpse of its avatar and replaced his tattered clothing with the superior armor. Nergal had put the dragon weapon into his sheathe and walked even deeper. Nergal knew there was something special about this cave it had been deserted and there had been creatures he had never seen before. The walls were covered in blood and the ground littered with bones. Nergal came across another group of beetle like creatures and they all attacked in sequence, this time they had made contact and had knocked Nergal to the dirt Nergal got up and swung his newly found weapon crushing down on the much stronger beetle creature he quickly stabbed and hacked away at the creatures and they all were eventually dead. Nergal looked ahead and seen a much larger beetle creature four or five times the size of the group he had just killed the larger beetle stood with four creature half the size of it. Nergal thought to himself, where I know I've heard of beetle creatures like this in the desert before but… what were they called? Kalocs….? Kalphrits?… Then it hit him the creatures were called Kalphites and the largest one was the queen, The Kalphite queen… the toughest known monster in Runescape.

For the first time since he was a child fear had struck Nergal. Nergal drew his weapon and darted in behind the queen and her four guardians he stabbed the weapon into the back of the one of her guardians, suddenly he was knocked off his feet and felt a sharp pain climbing from his ribs up, the Queen had struck him in his chest shattering three of his left ribs. Nergal stood up in great pain and began to hack away at the guardians trying to rid them of the dungeon first he hacked them away with petty ease and then turned his attention to the dreaded queen. The sharp pain shot and throbbed through him, Nergal ignoring the pain, he had much worse growing up during his clouded childhood. The green beetle resembled the others he had killed but was far stronger and larger. Nergal swung and sliced at the creature, the volley of attacks proved futile against the beetle despite his constant barrage he had not even cut an inch into the creatures think hide.

Nergal collapsed he began bleeding from the mouth, Nergal thought that his lung must have been punctured from the blow to his chest. The Kalphite queen hastily charging and attacking at Nergal, He was knocked to the dirt again, Nergal stabbed the sword into the stomach of the beetle and blood poured from the wound. Nergal took three more stabs to the belly of the beast before rolling over and moving to the side, he got back to his feet and the beetle had tackled him hard, Nergal had remained on his feet and spit up a quart of blood. Nergal knew he was going to die unless he got help quick, enraged by the Kalphite, Nergal went into a state of berserk never minding his defence and blindly attacking the creature, Nergal had was giving the creature hell until it sliced through the kidney area of the armor and cut a large gash into Nergal's side. Nergal fell back towards the wall and blood poured from the new wound in his body, Despite his pain and rage Nergal stood up and side stepped towards the creature then rolled back under the queen's weak point he thrusted the sword up into the creatures ribs and twisted the blade ripping apart the lungs of the beetle, blood oozed from its wound right on top of Nergal. Nergal got up and watched the creature struggle to stay alive, it was dying the beetle took four steps towards Nergal and collapsed.

Behind the corpse of the Kalphite Queen was a pedestal with the rare and powerful dragon chain armor along with the rest of the set, the medium helm, the square shield and the plate legs. This was indeed Nergal's greatest achievements, he had defeated the Kalphite Queen and her minions single hand. Nergal walked towards the avatar of red armor and stared at it with awe, He took the armor from its ancient resting place and stripped from the rune armor then strapped himself into the newly acquired avatar.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Nergal ascended from he pit of Kalphites, the storm had ended and all was dark he was in that tunnel for what felt like days. The young warrior began to walk north to get out of this dry desert, Nergal was in pain he had to get to a more populated area and receive healing. Nergal had run out of water skins so he went to the first cactus he had seen and cut a limb of the plant off and filled the water skin with the water from the plant, He hoped it would be enough to get him to Al Kharid safely without dehydration. Nergal walked for a couple of hours seeing nothing but driven sand and cactus's and the occasional palm tree, until he had seen a couple of camels, Nergal thought there had to be a small oasis some where there's no way a camel would be in the middle of the desert with no water nearby. Nergal looked around the area to see if there was a small oasis near by the it was so dark he couldn't see much the only light provided was from the bright moon and the stars in the heavens.

Nergal began to walk north again for about an hour he passed nothing but three cactus's he had been counting to try to keep his sanity in tact. For what seemed like months was only hours but Nergal needed to rest he was going to faint without any rest because of his massive blood loss. The warrior looked north and finally seen it, the camels oasis he jogged forward towards it. He finally made it there was about five or six palm trees and a pond of fresh looking water there were some shrubs and grass to lay in.

Nergal laid down in his little desert dream oasis four ten minutes before he started to make a camp. When Nergal got up he laid out the rune armor that he put in a bag he had found in the dungeon and filled his other water skins. Nergal took out his dragon longsword and cut down a palm tree he took the leaves off the top to make a bed and used the rest for a fire. Nergal put the wood around a pile of stone he had found and began to rub two sticks together to make a fire, He rubbed them for about twenty minutes before they heated up and lit the tinder from the tree.

Nergal looked around there area for some shrubs or plants of some kind that he could use to make his wounds heal up quicker. Nergal tried to remember his Herblore training from when he was a small child, he remembered that the Guam leaf could be used to helps wounds heal quicker. After Nergal had patched himself up long enough to survive until he found a doctor he went looking for a musk rat, camel, lion… anything he could kill for some food Nergal was starving and exhausted the sooner he hunted the animal the sooner he could sleep. Nergal barely left the sight of his camp he was afraid he would be lost so he didn't wander far, after about thirty minutes of searching a pack of lions came "Damnit this is just what I needed" Nergal said sarcastically, He drew his sword and through it directly at a lion the sword impaled it through the neck and blood poured and oozed out of the wound. The other lions ran away fearing that they would be killed to. Nergal retrieved the dead animal and dragged it back to his camp. Once he got to his camp he cut the lion with the sword carefully preserving the skin so he could make a sheath or some clothing out of it later, he took out all the organs and non edible parts of the animal and buried them so no other animals be drawn to the scent of it, the last thing he wanted was a group of buzzards picking him apart for food.

The fire grew dim so Nergal added more wood to it, he grabbed three sticks and drove them into the sand so they were standing up on there own, then he placed another stick through the edible meat and place on top of the other two sticks allowing the meat to slowly roast. Nergal ate up the food when it was cooked and fell to sleep right away, not even bothering to take off his newly acquired armor.

Nergal woke up to the bright light, the sun about one quarter of the way to being perfectly vertical, "Must be around 9:30" Nergal said to himself. Sun was shimmering off of his rune armor he had found, it had falling out of the bag he had found in the Kalphite lair. Nergal packed all of his items into the bag and put the lion skin on top of the rune in the bag, He began walking north- east once again, "I should reach Al Kharid today, I've got to be close". After an two hours of walking Nergal had seen the entrance, it was Shantay pass, he walked past the guards and towards the province of Al Kharid he made his way straight towards the palace of Al Kharid, once he had gotten there he asked the an Al Kharid warrior where the nearest healer was, the man seemed stunned in a sort of trance that chilled Nergal, the man finally replied "The closest healers around here are at the duel arena" The guard quickly ran off towards the Sultan of Al Kharid and whispered something in his ear. Nergal continued toward the duel arena it had been a twenty five minute walk, once he had reached it there had been large crowds of people challenging each other.

He walked past many warriors, mages and rangers alike, all of them staring at Nergal and whispering to each other. One man approached Nergal he wore armor the was gilded in pure gold "Greetings" the man said "I am Skeliph, a great warrior with high renown throughout these fair lands, I wish to challenge you" Nergal looked at the man and replied "Why?" Skeliph said "Your wearing the rarest armor in Runescape only five sets of it were ever created, You must have killed the Kalphite queen?" "Yes I did" said Nergal "I wager my armor against yours winner takes all, by the way what is your name stranger?" "Nergal". Nergal and Skeliph went into the arena no appearance was visible of Skeliph his full helmet covered his entire face. Hundreds of spectators gathered on the stands "Looks like you've drawn quite the crowd Nergal, I can see why, your wearing such rare armor, they know how powerful you must be, but I will beat you!". Nergal drew his sword and ran towards Skeliph. Skeliph drew his sword and clashed it sliced through the air hitting nothing but wind, Nergal had dodged it, Nergal shoved the full length of his blade through the chest of his challenger. Skeliph collapsed to the sand and died "You call that a challenge!" Nergal's voice said in anger, The young warrior felt good a new feeling to his agenda he was bloodthirsty he enjoyed watching others die in front of him.

Nergal walked towards the duel arena hospital and the healers got to work on him right away. Nergal had fallen asleep after the healers were done healing him.

_Clash… boom… bang the sound of thunder filled the air and flashes of lightning followed, the sky was dark with a red tint. All was blurry Nergal couldn't see but his vision came into focus A dark hooded and cloaked man wearing the symbol of Zamorak the mans, eyes glowing red with hatred. He was wielding a blade of fire and fighting off hundreds of approaching enemy, they were wearing the emblem of Saradomin and light bluish colored cloaks with armor of all types. The evil man stood atop a hill charred from flame surrounded by lakes of lava. Nergal had recognized this place it was Falador castle_ _except the once mighty majestic surrounding river was a river of burning lava. Just then a man wearing the god Armor of Saradomin game rushing up the hill, Nergal's vision followed the man wearing the bright rune armor trimmed in a White finish with the Saradomin emblem engraved on the centre of the chest plate. The heroic warrior of Saradomin battled it out with the Dark warrior, after about ten minutes of non stop clashing of the swords between the two of them the dark warrior finally thrusted his flaming blade through the centre of the chest where the Saradomin engraving was Nergal felt as if the blade went through himself and cried in pain The dark warrior raised his head and looked directly at where Nergal had been standing, the dark wanderer had dark red eyes and a pale face of evilness the man also had a an ugly scar across his left cheek. _

Wake up… Wake… Nergal woke up to the sound of the young women's voice. Nergal was sweating and had a cold sweat "What happened?" the women replied "you were having a nightmare". Nergal got up from the duel arena's hospital and looked beside him, it was the gilded armor from the man he had killed and his legendary dragon armor sitting next to it, his sword was lying on the side table and his sack of the old rune and the lion skin where sitting right next to it. Nergal strapped himself in his armor and put the gilded armor in the bag with the rune and lion skin the sack easily weighed. 160 pounds. "Where are you headed the women asked?" Nergal replied "Varrock, I got some unfinished business".


End file.
